List

A few weeks ago after a conversation with broads Katey and Dena, I decided to make a list. I like lists. They make me happy. This particular list was "Ten Things I Want To Do Before I Die". Todd keeps telling me it's called a bucket list, but that's just because he saw the movie by the same name. I don't like the name bucket list, so it's my TTIWTDBID List.

My stubbornness is often ridiculous.

Anyway, here is my list:

1. Go back to the U.K. with my kids and Todd and spend at the very least two weeks romping about. I'd rather spend 3 or 4. We'll see. I did all the math a few weeks ago at how I can make this happen financially. It will take 8 years. Which will actually be perfect timing since the boys will be 16, 14, and 12. It will sort of be the last summer of kid. The following year Benjamin will need to be working and getting ready for exiting the nest. But the summer that he's 16, he will still be mine.

2. Send a manuscript to publishers (well, a letter to book agents, anyway) and collect the stack of rejection notices that follow. I will put them in a lovely book with all of Todd's rejection notices from poetry submissions years ago. I have one manuscript one solid day away from being done. I never have one whole day, though. So it's more like a week away. Then there's the letter. I'll make Todd write the letter. He's in marketing...

3. Visit every state in the U.S. I'm getting closer all the time on this one. I picked up South Carolina on our most recent visit to FL. But I'm missing the entire southwest of our country. A vacation clearly needs to be planned for that region. I have 14 states left to go.

4. Get and keep all of my family's scrapbooks up to date. When I read the list to Todd he laughed and said that this one was the most likely to be the one left undone when I died. It's true. I'm going to make a goal to spend a couple hours every Sunday night working on the kid's books, though, so I can get closer to realizing this one.

5. Take a ballroom dance class with Todd. On my list it actually says, "Take a ballroom dance class with Todd, dammit!" Every year that we've been married I've said, "Hey, Todd, wanna take a ballroom dance class with me?" and every year his answer is "Not right now." The years that I was pregnant or nursing a baby, this answer made sense to me. Now, I'm all done with it. For TEN years we have moved his ballroom dance shoes from apartment to apartment to house to house and never ONCE has he put them on. I am going to take a ballroom dance class in the next couple of years. He is becoming less of a factor in the decision. But if I take it without him, his shoes are so going to end up on ebay.

6. Take our boys on a backpacking adventure. When we were younger and less tired, we wanted to take six months and do the entire Appalachian trail with the boys. Now, we're thinking more like two week sections of the trail every summer. They're still a little young for such adventures, but in about five more years we can start.

7. Act in a play or a musical again. I miss the stage. I'm very happy to be in the chorus or just be an extra, but I miss the thrill of being on stage.

8. Hike to the top of that really tall mountain in Yosemite. My friend, Sukhvinder, keeps sending me pictures from the almost top. I want to go all the way, though. So, I just have to get back to California, so she and I can have a new adventure!

9. Learn how to swim for real. I'm a really strong swimmer. My Mom liked to swim underwater and tug our feet down when we were kids. Consequently, I learned to swim strongly to avoid drowning. But I never learned how to do all the strokes. I can mimic what I see, but I don't know how to do them officially. And the whole breathing under my arm thing never worked out for me.

10. Participate in an organized race. DONE!!! Big check mark for ME!!!